The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has extended voting hours at polling stations where electoral officials were recorded arriving late during Saturday’s Edo State gubernatorial election.
Earlier, PREMIUM TIMES reported that some angry voters expressed frustration over the delay in the start of voting due to the late arrival of INEC officials.
Mohammed Haruna, National Commissioner of INEC’s Information and Voter Education Committee, said in a statement posted on the electoral body’s X profile that “voting will be extended wherever it started late and will continue until the last voter in the queue who arrived at the polling unit at 2:30 pm has voted.”
“We have therefore drawn the attention of our office in Edo State to ensure that, where necessary, there is adequate power supply from our backup generators in the affected electoral units or ward cluster centres.”
He said INEC took the decision to ensure that no voter is denied his constitutional right to vote.
“The Commission continues to monitor the ongoing governorship election in Edo State from our situation room at the National Headquarters in Abuja.
“Our monitoring indicates an early start to voting at many polling stations, but there are also reports of a late start in some locations,” the statement reads in part.
Article page with promotion of financial support
There are 17 candidates, including 16 men and one woman, running in Saturday's gubernatorial election.
However, the race appears to have come down to a three-horse fight between the front-runners: Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP), Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to data from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), there are 2,629,025 registered voters in the state, but only 2,249,780 have obtained their Permanent Electoral Card (PVC).
READ ALSO: #EdoDecides2024: Vote buying observed at polling stations
Edo South Senatorial District with its seven local government areas leads in PVC collection with 1,254,424, representing 55.76% of the total. It is followed by Edo North Senatorial District with 629,397 PVC, or 27.98%, while Edo Central Senatorial District lags behind with 365,959 PVC, representing 16.27%.
Edo State is divided into 18 local government areas, 192 constituencies and 4,519 electoral units.